1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector between anchor and chain of ships, in particular, sailing boats and yachts, whose anchor connection component is provided at its one end with a receiving fork for the anchor and whose chain connection component has at one end a fork portion for receiving a chain member, wherein the legs of the receiving fork and also the legs of the fork portion are penetrated each by a screw bolt which, on the one hand, is secured with its head in one leg and with its threaded shaft in the other leg and can be secured by means of a clamping screw, if needed, wherein the anchor connection component and the chain connection component are connected to one another by a ball-and-socket joint in that one component has a ball head and the other component has a ball socket with an opening that opens into the receiving fork.
2. Description of the Related Art
A connector of the aforementioned kind is known from DE 197 26 893 C1 whose chain connection component comprises the ball head which is secured in the ball socket of the anchor connection component. In addition to the connecting shaft connected to the fork part of the chain connection component, the ball head is in the form of a complete sphere which, aside from the pivoting cutout for the connecting shaft connected to the fork part, is completely enclosed by the ball socket in the chain connection component. At the bottom of the ball socket an opening is located which extends into the slot of the receiving fork of the anchor connection component. This opening is designed to allow contaminants, such as, for example, sand etc. to flow out of the ball socket. Since however the ball head essentially is entirely enclosed by the ball socket, encrustation and soiling may occur so that the flexibility of the ball joint is destroyed, especially in the case of longer residence times of the anchor under water.
It is an object of the invention to maintain a joint function of a connector which, on the one hand, minimizes the bending loads of the connector as a result of an automatically adjustable angular position of the chain relative to the longitudinal axis of the anchor shaft and which, on the other hand, can be mounted in a simple and inexpensive way, wherein for its use as directed contaminants in the ball-and-socket joint can be safely rinsed out with pumping movements, as a result of rotation, yawing, listing etc. of the hull of the ship. This object is solved according to the invention in that the ball socket has a hollow spherical portion facing away from the receiving fork for securing the ball head when under. tensile load and the ball head comprises an end face facing the receiving fork and recessed relative to the spherical shape, which together with a cylinder chamber, projecting from the hollow spherical portion and oriented toward the receiving fork, form a pumping chamber. Loading as well as load relief movements and moreover also angular movements of the chain result in a pumping movement of the ball head so that, together with the water, contaminants possibly present within the pump chamber are rinsed out so that the angular movability of the connector is ensured.
Even though it is possible to correlate the ball head with the anchor connection component and thus to form the ball socket on the chain connection component, for reasons of sizing considerations it may be advantageous when the ball head is a component of the chain connection component and the ball socket is a component of the anchor connection component. For providing sufficient contact surfaces for the connector when loaded by tension, even when the connection. component on which the ball head is provided, has been moved into its maximum slanted position relative to the aligned position of the longitudinal axes of the connection component, the ball head advantageously has a planar end face positioned on a side opposite the fork part and extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the chain connection component which is enclosed by an obtuse angle beginning at the center point of the ball, whose value is 180xc2x0 minus the maximum possible pivot angle of the chain connection. component. In this connection, the depth of the cylinder chamber forming the pump chamber is advantageously slightly greater than the spacing of the edge area of the end face of the ball head, pivoted forwardly the farthest, relative to the ball center point, when pivoting the ball head about half the. value of the pivot angle.
The end face of the ball head, which is normally planar, can however also be embodied. to be concave so that a partially hollow ball head results.
For limiting the pump stroke, a support pin projects advantageously from the end face of the ball head which projects maximally to the imaginary circle supplementing the sphere. This support pin can be designed differently, for example, as a cone with rounded tip. Moreover, it is also possible to design the support pin in the form of a bell-shaped component placed onto the end face of the ball head or to form the support pin as a cylindrical projection whose top is designed as a spherical cap.
In order to prevent accidental or unauthorized detachment of the clamping screw of the position-secured screw bolt, according to a further embodiment of the invention this clamping screw is a head cap screw whose head is designed for actuation by means of a special tool. In this connection, the head of the clamping screw may have a star-shaped polygonal recessed receptacle.